All Aboard
by uniqueinkblots
Summary: "You were roaming around the platform like a clumsy, blundering idiot. Kind of like...an awkward dinosaur." Eddie is a newcomer to the UK and an epic fail at traveling alone, to be honest. Patricia is no stranger to this part of the world, but she does happen to be on the same train as Eddie. To be specific, she's sitting in the seat right across from him. AU Peddie Oneshot.


**********************A/N:**

I kind of adore AU Peddie and I have about 5 or 6 random AU oneshots sitting around on my computer that I apparently never posted. This is one of them: an AU oneshot where Eddie and Patricia meet on a train. It's nothing special and it's pretty brief and undeveloped and entirely random but...no reason for it lay around unposted, right? :)

Also I'm not from the UK so I have no knowledge of how trains work over there - sorry for any inaccuracies! I've visited once and will be studying abroad there soon but I can't seem to remember how the transportation works.

**************************Disclaimer:** House of Anubis belongs to Nickelodeon, not me.

* * *

He could have sworn he left the hotel in time.

Eddie hadn't thought he would be running late for his train, but of course he was. He had thought he was right on schedule until a proper glance at his wristwatch informed him otherwise. In retrospect, he understood where the time had gone.

The flight to London had been long and exhausting. The woman sitting beside him had chattered his ear off for five hours straight (no exaggeration) before gleefully realizing the screen in front of her wasn't a decoration and could be used for movies and entertainment. (Eddie regretted not pointing that out sooner, but how was he supposed to realize she was that clueless?)

After debarking the plane, Eddie had to wait ages to get through immigration (he wasn't a fancy EU passport holder and required a visa to enter the UK) and another hour for his suitcase to make an appearance at the baggage claim. Following that mess, he had fumbled with the ATM and currency exchange and then sat through a traffic infested taxi ride.

When he finally reached the hotel three hours after the expected arrival time, he had dragged himself to his room and made an awkward phone call to his estranged father in which he assured the man he was alive and well (sort of) before passing out from exhaustion and jet lag.

All of that had caused Eddie to sleep through his alarms so of course he caught the brunt of morning traffic and to top it all off, the train station was nowhere near his hotel.

Okay, so maybe he should have never assumed he was doing well with time since it was obvious everything that could have gone wrong, did indeed explode in face.

And that left him with his current situation: if he didn't move faster, he was going to miss his train.

* * *

Patricia rested her elbow on her seat's armrest and peered outside the window.

It was stupid how the train stopped at each stop for so long. She knew trains weren't like the tube where doors opened and shut within seconds...but still. She had been traveling for hours and stopping at _London _of all places was annoying because there would be clueless tourists crowding up the area within seconds. She just wanted the train to move. The sooner it did, the sooner she'd be home.

Summer camp had been fun (her parents were going to be so smug when she admitted that) but she was ready to go home and relax a couple weeks before a new term started. She had asked Piper to join her, but her twin had refused, using practicing music as an excuse.

How Patricia had ended up with an overachiever of a sibling she would never understand.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a rather stupid guy struggling on the platform. She knew it wasn't nice to judge people but this particular individual was clearly a paranoid idiot. The train was scheduled to leave in five minutes, but realistically doors wouldn't close for another ten. Still, this bloke was squinting at his ticket, clutching at it with both hands. She couldn't see his face, but his actions were obvious from his posture.

Patricia rolled her eyes and huffed. That dumb kid's bag was going to get stolen any second if he didn't get his act together.

Apparently, the same thought had occurred to him too, because he stuffed his ticket into his jacket pocket and hastily grabbed his suitcase handle once more. He wheeled it away from Patricia's compartment and headed in the other direction, nearly colliding into the wall in the process.

It was then that she caught a look at his face.

_Oh..._

Young. Good looking. Scratch that...undeniably attractive.

Patricia frowned as he receded from her view, practically tripping over his suitcase as he struggled to find the right compartment. Now that she realized how hot she was, she was kind of disappointed to see him go.

That, and who didn't love watching someone make a fool of themselves?

Suddenly though, he turned and headed in the original way he had come, smacking his forehead. His expression was one of frustration and exasperation. The panic had disappeared though. Apparently, he had realized that the train wasn't going to be pulling away just yet.

As he grew closer, Patricia found she couldn't keep looking at him. Making eye contact with a person on a platform while being inside a train would be really awkward.

She tore her eyes away and directed her focus to her mobile. Looks like she wouldn't find out confused boy's story.

But of course that wouldn't be true for long.

* * *

Eddie wasn't having a good morning.

This was his first time traveling alone and he was anything but smooth. He wasn't stupid; he was aware he must of looked beyond clueless to anyone who happened to be looking.

Thankfully, he was pretty sure that no one had taken too much notice to him. That was the beauty of being in a city. No one really paid attention to anyone but themselves; he knew that firsthand. Being born and raised as a New Yorker, he was well acquainted with living within his own head, walking streets like he owned them.

He didn't realize that this time, he was wrong.

Someone _had _been watching.

"A53...A53...A53..." Eddie mumbled his seat number to himself as he searched for the right place.

He was relieved to find that it was close to the door. With a small grunt, he lifted his suitcase and placed it on the overhead rack before slipping into his seat. The set up was quaint; two adjacent seats with a little space and then another two seats facing them. Perfect for families.

Eddie was surprised to see that the seat across from him was occupied. From what he had seen, this wasn't a very full train. Maybe because London was towards the end of its list of stops. It had been servicing for quite sometime.

The girl across from him had to be around his age. The first thing he noticed was that she was beautiful (he can't help but notice stuff like that) with reddish hair and piercing green eyes...that were staring at him wide with surprise.

It would be awkward if Eddie didn't at least greet her. They were sitting less than five feet away from each other so it seemed fitting.

"Um, hi," he said.

He was expecting her to say hello back and then they would lapse into peaceful silence; that's just how it was done where he was from. Actually, to be precise, half the time New Yorkers didn't even bother to acknowledge the presence of someone else, regardless of how close they were sitting. In his mind, he was going above and beyond.

But apparently, things were done differently in the UK. Or maybe this girl was just different.

"Oh, American," she muttered, sounding almost disdainful. "Figures."

Eddie couldn't decide if he was more offended or more perplexed. "What do you mean by that?" he asked.

"I saw you earlier," she clarified. "You're not from here. I should have guessed."

Eddie could feel his face heating up. "Yeah I suppose I was...struggling."

"You were roaming around the platform like a clumsy, blundering idiot. Kind of like...an awkward dinosaur."

An awkward _what? _Eddie's silence came from pondering the girl's interesting comparison but she mistook it from something else.

"Oh," she murmured with a hint of remorse. "Was that rude of me?"

"It definitely was," Eddie confirmed, unfazed. "So...awkward dinosaur?"

Patricia grinned and Eddie couldn't help but feel absurdly pleased. Apparently, she approved of him taking her insults in was ridiculous to feel happy about putting a smile on a stranger's face but he couldn't help but feel proud.

"Kind of like a T-rex," she explained. "They have big heads and little arms and quite frankly, their proportions are downright tragic."

All New York instincts thrown to the wind, Eddie chuckled and instinctively leaned forward a little. Sitting and ignoring the people around him no longer seemed like the right thing to. Talking to this girl seemed more interesting.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Um...Piper," she decided.

"You took too long," he accused. "That's not your real name, is it?"

"You're good. No it's not." She grinned, impressed. "Patricia."

"For real?"

Patricia nodded and smiled shyly, a great contrast from her earlier attitude. "What's yours?"

"Edison."

Eddie didn't normally give people his real name because he hated it. Too stiff and formal. But he found himself wondering how this girl would respond.

"Just because I was joking around and gave you fake name first doesn't mean you need to do the same," she snorted.

Eddie burst out into laughter. "That's my real name, sweetheart," he drawled.

Her face flushed for just a moment before all traces of being flattered disappeared. She now stared at him, her gaze confident, eyes glinting with mischief.

"What an unfortunate name," she teased.

Eddie nodded in agreement. "Call me Eddie," he requested.

He tore his gaze away from his new friend (could he call her that?) to look outside the window. He hadn't noticed when the train had rolled away from the station, but it had. London had disappeared, transforming into a grassy countryside while Eddie had been engaged in conversation.

Patricia observed him curiously. Eddie wasn't as stupid as she had initially assumed. She hadn't talked to him much but it was clear that he was fairly bright. There were two hours until her stop and she was hoping to find out more about him._  
_

She was inexplicably intrigued.

"So...young American kid traveling alone," she stated. "Seems like there's a story there."

"Young British girl traveling alone," Eddie shot back. "Same goes for you."

"I asked first though!"

"True," Eddie admitted. "Okay. Um, let's see. Well my parents are divorced for a looong time and I live with my mom in New York. I haven't seen my dad in a while since so I was due for a visit. _Apparently, _we're going to bond. And then I'm enrolled for boarding school here now. So that I can be closer to my dad."

He sounded almost resentful, a fact that Patricia didn't miss.

"How long has it been since you've seen him?" she asked.

"Three years."

"That's a long time," she mused. "Listen I know I don't really know you but anyone could see that you're not exactly excited about your situation. I'm generally not too sentimental but after being at camp all summer I have a little bit of insight. Family is important. I thought I wouldn't miss them at all but by the end I was actually missing Piper's stupid piano and my dad's random spiels and my mom's cooking..."

"Hang on," Eddie interrupted. "You know someone named Piper for real?"

"Twin sister," Patricia said dismissively. "Point is, your dad is important. You're going to be grateful you're spending time with him. If you don't, later you're just going to regret it. That's my wisdom for the day."

"Thanks," Eddie shrugged before cracking a wide smile. "You mean you're not usually insightful and helpful?"

"I'm most definitely the opposite," Patricia replied, winking. "OH and as for the boarding school thing...I go to one too. I don't really miss my family there because I'm used to being away during the school term but anyways. The actual _school _part is lame but there are lots of opportunities to prank people and I actually have some awesome friends. Though I make it not a point to tell them that," she said thoughtfully.

"You sound like a delight," Eddie said dryly. "Do you always tell strangers your bad habits?"

"Only when they have the same ones," Patricia shot back with bravado.

"You're fun," Eddie said suddenly. "You're my first friend in this entire country. Any chance you're getting off at Shrewsbury?"

"I'm the stop before," Patricia said apologetically. "Which is coming up any moment."

She began to gather her belongings and Eddie couldn't help but sigh. They had been chatting for such a long time that the majority of the train ride had passed and he hadn't even noticed.

The conductor called out that the next stop was approaching and Eddie felt his mood growing more sour.

Dejected, Eddie held out his hand. "It was nice to meet you," he said wistfully, trying not to sound as glum as he felt.

Patricia shook his hand in return and when Eddie pulled his hand away, there was a scrap of paper inside it.

"My full name and number," she explained. "Normally I don't talk to strangers, _especially _idiots like you, but considering how we're going to be to the same school next semester, we might as well get to know each other early."

"What? We are?" Eddie demanded in shock. "How do you know that?"

"You've got one of our brochures sticking out of the outside part of your suitcase and there's a great big sad face written in sharpie across the front...I'm assuming that's because you're not excited to be going there."

Now standing, Patricia was pointing the luggage rack. Eddie's bag had been jostled and the top zipper open, bringing the piece of paper to view. He too stood up and observed his suitcase, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.

"Well if it makes a difference, I'm pretty excited to be going there _now," _he said meaningfully. "And if you're going to call me idiot, then I'm going to have to give you a nickname too."

"Oh?" Patricia's eyes sparked with interest. The doors to the train had now opened to let passengers go, but she didn't move. "Go on, then. Tell me quickly, this is where I go."

"_Yacker," _Eddie decided with pride.

"Yacker?"

"You talked ear off," he complained. "Worse than the lady on the airplane."

Patricia grinned a smile Eddie was already pretty sure he was learning to love. "You'll have to tell me all about her. Text me, you useless American." And with one last cheerful wave, she hopped off the train and disappeared down the platform without looking back.

Eddie didn't mind though.

He didn't need to her to give him another goodbye.

After all, this was only the _beginning._

* * *

**A/N:**

I admit this oneshot had absolutely no purpose. I can't even remember when I wrote this thing. It's just random dialogue set within an AU.

Hope it was still fun to read though :)


End file.
